Dinah Sheridan, best known for a brief period of stardom in British films in the 1950s (most famously Genevieve), after which her career had two major hiatuses for personal reasons and never fully recovered: her last big-screen appearance was in The Railway Children (1970). But 92 is a good innings by any yardstick.

I just got the news that Spain Rodriguez died this morning. He'd been battling colon cancer for a while. He's well known as part of the '60s Underground Comix upsurge but he'd more recently done a lot of historical works such as the Che bio and some shorter stories just brought back into print in the new Anarchy Comics Collection, collecting all four issues of an anthology comic he was closely involved with.

I just got the news that Spain Rodriguez died this morning. He'd been battling colon cancer for a while. He's well known as part of the '60s Underground Comix upsurge but he'd more recently done a lot of historical works such as the Che bio and some shorter stories just brought back into print in the new Anarchy Comics Collection, collecting all four issues of an anthology comic he was closely involved with.

Damn. He was a great cartoonist. His autobiographical work was up there with Pekar's stuff.

The Brubeck Quartet played at the Atlanta International Pop Festival in 1969. They took the stage after Grand Funk Railroad which was surreal enough. While they played (it was late afternoon), the Reverend Billy Graham circulated through the crowd in a rather garish gold sport jacket, attempting to do his thing. He was largely ignored in favor of Brubeck's transcendent improvisations. Which is as it should be.

One of the greats,(session)guitarist Mickey Baker died couple of days ago.He was probably best known for Mickey and Sylvia's hit "Love is Strange".

Mickey Guitar Baker, one of the greats and a pioneer R&B/rock guitarist.He was on a ton of important R&B records.Give a listen to Little Willie John's Need Your Love So Bad with a great and sensitive intro by Baker, followed by exquisite comping. (The song is also worth listening to because it's basically the template James Brown used in all of his ballads for decades).

Mickey and Sylvia did backup vocals on Ike & Tina's It's Gonna Work Out Fine, which makes the link between the duos explicit. Ike & Tina often imitated the spoken banter of Love Is Strange. Mickey also played guitar on Titus Turner's classic All Around the World.

Mickey's Guitar bakes on Big Joe Turner's Shake Rattle and Roll; Big Maybelle's original Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On; The Drifters' Money Honey, and a few other of the greatest 50's tunes.

Lowman Pauling of the Five Royales was another similar unsung guitar hero, responsible for songs you know but probably don't know the original versions of -- Dedicated to The One I Love; Tell The Truth; Think. Also worth listening to The Slummer the Slum and most of their great output. Early Ike Turner, once he switched to guitar, is fairly similar to Mickey Baker. And Bo Diddley -- usually credited with writing Love Is Strange -- was the breakthrough R&B guitar artist. Buddy Holly was influenced strongly by Mickey Baker's playing especially on Love Is Strange, when he wasn't cadging licks from Bo Diddley ....

Btw, Sylvia Robinson nee Vanderpool aka Little Sylvia and the other half of Mickey & ___ died just last year, age 75. She had been one of Mickey Baker's guitar students he brought to fame. She had a pretty interesting career, including writing and producing songs for Grandmaster Flash.

Unfortunately I have only had a chance to see his film Frustation, but I remember it being quite an impressive little film. The Eurotika episode dedicated to the director is up on YouTube, which gives a great runthrough of his career. Jo Caligula looks particularly interesting! (it goes without saying it is NSFW!)

Something interesting to note is that one of his earliest big successes, Cover Girl, apparently stars Giorgia Moll a year or so after she played the translator in Godard's Contempt.

That piece is also worth watching just for the moment where Bénazéraf rails against the 'dismal' love scenes of his contemporaries, singling out Truffaut and The Last Metro in particular for a scathing! ("When will we be free of these bourgeoisie?")

Albie Thoms, Australian avant-garde filmmaker and founder of the Sydney Filmmakers Co-Op (and also director of a couple of episodes of Skippy). AFI-nominated for the screenplay of his 1980 feature Palm Beach.